Philadelphia, PA-NJ

POVERTY BY AGE

While they say little about economic ups and downs in the decade between Censuses, income and poverty data provide us with economic "snapshots" of an area at the time of enumeration that can in turn be compared with economic data gathered from earlier Censuses. Poverty status, as measured in this chart, is determined by Poverty Thresholds, which take into account a number of factors, including income and family size and structure. For example, the 2000 Poverty Threshold for a family of four in the continental United States with two related children was 17,463. However, Poverty Thresholds are misleading because they do not provide an accurate picture of what a “poor” family’s life is like. According to the National Center for Children in poverty, most families of four would have to make twice their assigned Poverty Threshold in order to provide their children with basic necessities, such as housing, food, and health care.

Poverty by Age, 1990 and 2000
1990 2000
Number Percent Number Percent
Total Population* 4,794,389 100.00% 4,960,309 100.00%
In Poverty 499,948 10.43% 552,173 11.13%
Not in Poverty 4,294,441 89.57% 4,408,136 88.87%
11 Years and Under 811,497 16.93% 842,135 16.98%
In Poverty 126,013 2.63% 128,723 2.60%
Not in Poverty 685,484 14.30% 713,412 14.38%
12 to 17 Years 369,312 7.70% 430,451 8.68%
In Poverty 51,212 1.07% 58,941 1.19%
Not in Poverty 318,100 6.63% 371,510 7.49%
18 to 64 Years 2,983,448 62.23% 3,031,992 61.13%
In Poverty 257,216 5.36% 302,276 6.09%
Not in Poverty 2,726,232 56.86% 2,729,716 55.03%
65 Years and Above 630,132 13.14% 655,731 13.22%
In Poverty 65,507 1.37% 62,233 1.25%
Not in Poverty 564,625 11.78% 593,498 11.96%

* The total population is the population for which poverty status is determined. Therefore, the total in this table should not be expected to match the total population in the population growth topic.

Source: Census 2000 analyzed by the Social Science Data Analysis Network (SSDAN).

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